Yes, it’s still the regular season, at least until Wednesday when, happily for all involved, the non-playoff teams can go home.

Of course, none of them will be more relieved than the Lakers, who have clinched the fourth-worst record and hope never to field another team like this for the rest of time.

If NBA interest picks up at the end as teams jockey for position in the postseason, fans hunger for something more compelling, which is why the press treats the MVP race as if Tiger Woods was walking up the fairway on the last hole of the Masters, tied for the lead.

By July 1, when a new NBA champion has been crowned, few will care whom the MVP was aside from immediate family.

Take the 1996-97 season when the press tired of giving the MVP to Michael Jordan, who had four, and voted it to Karl Malone instead.

MJ’s Bulls then beat Mailman’s Jazz in the Finals. You still hear about Mike’s six titles but nothing about his MVPs.

Personally, I have a problem with the MVP concept, as in I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be and I don’t think anyone else is either.

Everyone agrees it should go to a guy having a great season.

Everyone is pretty well agreed it should go to a team that wins a lot.

Unfortunately, no one is sure if it should go to the team that wins the most, or if a lot will suffice.

There’s no agreement at all on the impact of teammates. Should it count against you if you got a lot of help from players as good as Klay Thompson and Draymond Green on a great team, like Golden State’s Steph Curry?

How much should it count for you if you lose Dwight Howard and led a team of role players to a top-three finish in the Wild West like Houston’s James Harden?

What if the new union head, Michelle Roberts, wants the players to select their own award winners in her crusade to tick off the league?

(Actually, I’m more interested in what players think than what the press thinks. I’m a member of the press; I know how much it knows.)

Happily for the NBA, Roberts doesn’t know any more about public relations than union heads ever have.

Roberts’ plan is to announce the players’ selections in an award show in Las Vegas over the summer … giving them a chance to party afterward!

Meanwhile, the NBA will have already announced its awards during the playoffs, garnering 100 percent of the attention.

Then there’s the campaigning, which is the real entertainment.

In March, Curry’s coach, Steve Kerr, irritated by the Houston GM’s routine promotion of Harden, noted, “If Daryl Morey wants to run his own one-man campaign for James Harden, he can do that. We’re focused on other stuff.”

Apparently, their focus paid off.

After last week’s fireworks show in which Steph went for 45 points in a win over Portland, Kerr joined the campaign, noting, “There’s nothing left to say, except that he’s the MVP.”

Actually, there was something left to say. Harden announced, “Yeah, I feel like I’ve done enough… I feel as though I am the MVP.”

So, they’re tied there, too.

As for the real significance, put it this way: If the Lakers were getting Harden or Curry, their fans wouldn’t have to see which one to celebrate.

Aside from being a real point guard who makes plays for others, and the best player pound-for-pound the game has ever seen, Curry is a magic shooter who’s starting to dominate the record book as Wilt Chamberlain did in scoring and rebounding.

Of the top five single-season totals for three-pointers, Steph has three in six NBA seasons.

Of the players amassing the top 10 single-season totals in threes, only one is in the top 25 in all-time accuracy … Steph, of course, who’s No. 2 at 44 percent (to Kerr’s 45.4 percent).

As for Harden, with LeBron James in conservation move and Kevin Durant out most of the season, he might just have become the NBA’s best player.

If Bron is still Bron and KD’s still KD, Harden’s killer crossover makes him the game’s best one-on-one player, averaging 27.6 points, 5.9 rebounds, 6.7 assists, 10.2 free throws attempts, 8.8 free throws made, shooting 44% from the floor, 38% from the three-point arc and 87% from the line.

If I have to pick one, it will have to be Harden … no, Curry … no, James … no, Steph.

OK, James Harden. If you don’t agree, let’s talk in two months, if you still remember it.

Mark Heisler has written an NBA column since 1991 and was honored with the Naismith Hall of Fame’s Curt Gowdy Award in 2006. His column is published Sundays in Los Angeles News Group print editions.

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